Three with local ties win lottery competition

Friday, March 2, 2007Leonna Heuring

SIKESTON -- Three of the top five winners of Missouri Lottery's "Design-A-

Ticket" contest have Southeast Missouri ties.

Designs by Terry Boyers of Morley, Allen Thompson of Dexter and former Matthews resident Angie Roberts Cain of Desloge were selected as winners in the online voting contest. The other two winners were from Lesterville and Columbia.

The contest solicited $1 Scratchers ticket design ideas from Jan. 2-Feb. 2. The Lottery received nearly 1,000 entries that were narrowed to 20 finalists by a panel of experts. Each of the 20 finalists received $200 worth of Scratchers tickets.

The 20 finalist entries were posted on the Lottery's Web site at Molottery.com. Members of the Lottery's online player services group, My Lottery, voted to choose the five final winners. During the final voting period Feb. 9-26, more than 2,000 My Lottery members voted on their favorite designs.

Each of the five winners will receive an additional $500 worth of Scratchers tickets.

"I just didn't think I'd have a chance of making it to the finals, and I did," Cain, 34, said.

Cain's "Dream Scratcher" design featured the moon and clouds in the sky with scratch-off stars.

"It's everybody's dream to win the Lottery," Cain said about why she chose the dream catcher theme.

Boyers, whose design was in sixth place for much of the contest and then jumped into the top five the last days of the contest, said she was amazed she'd won, too.

Boyers, 53, called her camping-themed design, "The Great Missouri Outdoors."

Thompson, 51, who was unavailable for an interview, designed a ticket in the shape of a cell phone with scratch-off buttons. His entry was named "Calling For Cash."

The winning designs were drawn electronically. Thompson, a retired railroad worker, and Boyers, a fork lift operator, said they have no background in art. Cain creates cartoon panels and children's murals for day cares and businesses. Currently, she's in the process of illustrating some children's books, she said.

"We thought the contest was a huge success first of all because of the response of entries and the number of votes we received," said Breanne Gibson, Web coordinator for Missouri Lottery.

More than 7,000 votes -- members could vote up to five times -- were cast.

"The exciting thing about the five winners is these tickets are all unique. We don't have any tickets that look like these," Gibson said.

While currently there are no plans to turn to the designs into actual Lottery tickets, it's always a possibility, Gibson said.

Meanwhile the local winners said they can't wait to receive their additional $500 in tickets.

Cain's husband and family members helped scratch off the first 200 Scratchers, which took about 30 to 40 minutes to do, she said. Cain said she won $50-$70 with the 200 free Scratchers she's already received.

Boyers won about $80-$90 from her free $200 worth of Scratchers. "Then I took the winnings, got cash and bought a couple $10-tickets -- and I won $500," Boyers said.

Unlike Cain, Boyers said she'll be doing her ticket scratching alone.

"My youngest daughter is not allowed to touch them; she said she has bad luck. And my boyfriend is bad luck. My oldest daughter didn't win anything when she scratched some of them," Boyers said. "So I'll probably be scratching for a while."

Local winners

- Angie Roberts Cain's "Dream Scratcher" design featured the moon and clouds in the sky with scratch-off stars.

- Terry Boyers used a camping theme in her design "The Great Missouri Outdoors."

- Allen Thompson designed a ticket in the shape of a cell phone with scratch-